Yep they definitely are and I dont want to get it all the time bc then the game will lose some of the excitement since that is like the wizard mode lol. It a simple game really, but made difficult with shorter flips .

Double

Ugh

Blood Redregular, not blood red lightning...

http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=PP&Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PPS-20-10110-4B

Yea I want blood lighting flips but thanks

"Lightning flippers or bust" is my saying.

My BSD is missing a long small purple plastic that goes left of the popbumper area, next to the plastic ramp.
Does anyone have a spare for sale ?

I will check when I get home. If mine is unbroken you can have it.

I also got my BSD with lightning flippers and initially got used to them. Then changed to regular flippers. It took some games to adjust the shots, but since then I never looked back. The game is so much more fun with regular flippers, and it's still very very tough. I found BSD with lightning flippers stupid hard. And actually my highest score was around 3 billions, but still it took hundreds of game to get a decent play.
Now with regular bats I have a fun, interesting, spectacular game every 7/8 games. And I started enjoying and properly play multiballs and develop strategies to improve multiball scores, keeping 3/4 balls in play for double jackpots, or lock 2 in the castle also for double jackpot (something impossible with lightning flippers, unless very very and purely lucky). I aim now at those targets, and sometimes willingly achieve them. With lightning flippers everything always ended in no time with huge frustration.
This pinball was designed for regular flippers, I have no doubt! And it remains super hard.

I oftem have problems with the left gate. There is a small piece of iron connecting the gate to the other metal part attracted by the solenoid (see pic, it is resting on the top of the gate), and it often fall, failing to connect the two parts. This piece of iron looks like hand made, but I am not sure. Can you help? Is this the original part? If not, where can I get the original?

image.jpg

Doesn't look original to me. I should know because I was having problems with my left gate not opening up enough when Mist started on the left. Gate wasn't opening high enough. But could accept the ball when fed from the right gate. The ball would make it partly out the left gate and then fall.

Original gate appears to have a hole for securing the spring from the coil bracket. So I used thin solid copper wire and looped it through the small hole in the coil bracket where the spring would secure to, and then looped around the hooked gate left side. So far so good, but I haven't been able to find the original in stock yet.

Similar situtation like mine then. I checked also the manual, and basically I am missing the spring connecting the bracket to the gate. Probably my gate is also not original, as I do nor see the hole for the spring.
Any idea if somebody is producing parts for the left gate mechanism?

20151203_192256.jpg20151203_192151-1.jpg

I see! Now it's clear. As i supposed, I am missing both the spring and the original gate with the hole for the spring.

Looks like u just need a spring or something to connect it to the coil..

Thanks bigd and PoMC!

Your gate sld work with that loop on top ...u just need something to connect it to the coil . You have any drop target springs or even a wpc flipper coil return spring may work with some modification

As I mentioned there is this hand made iron wire bent in a way that connects the two parts. But it's not a great job, and it often detaches from the bracket. So I often have to manually re-set it up over again.

Maybe with some bending you can make yours work . Gl

yes, I did it already. It works fine for weeks, but then it's needed to keep adjusting it over the time.
a new original left gate would be better.

This gate is nearly the same thickness as a modern wire coat hanger. If you make your own, you can make it even stronger and the same shape. The only thing you will have to do is enlarge the gate joint holes. I did this for another collectors machine.

thanks for the suggestion: actually what I have now in my BSD is already pretty similar to what you explained.

Be careful of metals that are magnetic.

I have had my BSD for around 8 years and the gates were pretty much unavailable. These came into Marco's stock about a month ago. Enjoy.

http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/12-7065

Screen Shot 2015-12-04 at 10.06.45 AM.png

WHAAA? They finally remade it?! That's amazing. Everybody on here should buy one. I went through dozens of attempts at making a new one before I got my hands on a stock part.

Also, I'm pretty sure the manual has the wrong spring listed, so keep your eye out for that when ordering.

I should've pm'd Luppin first. These may be out of stock by the time he's see's this.

I don't believe the manual is incorrect about the spring, but I've been wrong before. Marco is also the only parts house that has the spring as well.

That mech has two springs, one near the coil and one that attaches to the gate. I think they have the part numbers swapped - at least in my copy of the manual.

I just ordered the gate because I also had to order a Maverick ramp, No Fear upper flipper bushing, Maverick decals and a few other things.

Out of stock.

Crazy!

Well, at least nice to hear they re-made it. I will keep it checked to order when it will be back on stock.

Regarding the spring: so which one is the correct one? (I have the second one, looks like original).

10-120 is the spring

Got the gate from Marco the other day and might have time to install it tonight. But I have my left gate working well now using a thin copper wire attached to the gate instead of the spring. So might just wait to replace the gate when I get my next parts order and add a few spotlights.

The metal composition in this case had no bearing on the functionality of "Mist Multi-ball".
Balls rolled past well, did not get "stuck", or interfere with the underside magnet mechanism.
It worked, and was cheap when parts were scarce.
If done, use NON-PLATE COATED coat hanger wire, to prevent "flaking".

Wife agrees that normal flippers are way more fun to play on BSD. She kicked my ass on a few games last night because normal flippers doesn't mean you still can't have fast ball times. Just means you can have more fun with fast ball times. I'd rather she have fun playing a game with me then not wanting to play it.

BSD with normal flippers is brutal. With lightning flipper is stupid brutal.

The thing is outlanes are brutal... and over there flippers do not help much.

Just finished painting the graveyard. That was a b**** to get out! What do you guys think? I was afraid the paint would not glow as much as the "factory painted" job. I was swapping out all the bulbs with leds when I blew a few fuses.. It will be a little while until I get to see it under the new lights..graveyard1.jpg

graveyard2.jpg

looks awesome!

Yeah, that's where I lose the ball the most. I like that the lightning flippers force me to use better ball control.

A ghost in my BSD - a tale (sorry, not a native speaker)

As I mentioned in previous posts, my left gate was broken and is not original: the gate itself and the spring connecting it to the mech that pulls it are handmade, actually instead of the spring there is an handmade iron wire. Yesterday I played few games and in the end the iron wire fell from its working position, so the gate stopped working. When that happen (often!), I have to remove the glass and set up this handmade "harness" over again.

Today something spooky happened. I decided to play a game, by I was lazy and didn't fix the not-working left gate. I just thought: "if I miss the mist ball, I will start the mist multiball anyway (because the left gate will not open). And this is what happened: started Mist, missed the shot to the second ball... so the second ball kept its trip to the left gate.... and.... the gate.... opened!!!! I could not believe my eyes... Dracula's ghost took over my pinball machine!!!

At the end of the game I then decided to inspect what happened... and guess what?.... the iron wire was still lying down from its working position!! So the gate could not work and open!!

Shocked, I tried the magnet test without fixing the handmade harness.... and guess what?... the gate kept opening!!!

There is only one explanation: ghosts do exist, Dracula do exists.. and they are in my BSD!!!

))

...Or maybe there is a scientific explanation...
Is there any pinball scientist with the right theory?

That's funny. My guess is magnetism. Your gate has been magnetized to the same pole as the ball/under playfield magnet. When the ball nears the gate, the magnets repel and the gate gets pushed open because of the way it is mounted and the magnet is coming at it from below.

Added blood flippers last night. Cool effect and looks sharp. Next parts order I will buy black flipper bats so you can't see any of the white flippers since I can use these white bats in another game.

dracula_flippers.jpg

correct, it's magnetism
anyway from my description it was impossibile to tell exactly: actually the iron wire fell down in a way so that when it is attracted by the magnet nearing to the gate, it moves forward and creates a kind of lever pushing the gate up! the funny thing is that after few days it is still consistent! :DD
the only difference with the normal opening is that in this way it opens more abrubtly, literally eating the ball at the last second. It's even better than the original to look at...
Who knows... maybe an idea for a mod.. :DD

Pretty cool. You can get blood red ones from PPS.

It's magnetized...

Looks great. The color choice is excellent and the execution is well done. A big improvement over the stock paintjob.

I found a rule not mentioned in the Sigma's Guide to BSD by Kevin Martin (BSD rulesheet):

During coffin multiball 2X at the coffin (for spotting two D-R-A-C-U-L-A letters with one shot at the coffin) stays constantly active until 1 ball drains.

This is the behaviour on my machine (revision L-1).

Just set my loop record to 28 loops, then 30 and now just 33 loops. Trying to break 50 in a game.

Just had my best game ever last week. 3.8b and 45 loops. Previous high was 1.9b.

With lightning flippers.

I had two coffin mballs today on the same ball and can confirm this as well